Dundee Wheat Beer

Brewed by High Falls Brewing Company
Style: Wheat Ale
Rochester, New York USA

From a Dundees mix pack. Pours a hazy gold with a good foamy head that lasted a while. Aroma of grain, yeast and citrus. Flavor is similar, with a hint of spice. Not a great wheat, but a nice refreshing brew on a hot day.

An American wheat? Just as confusing as is the description. Unfiltered wheat beers are usually hefeweizens but what makes an American hefeweizen an American wheat when other American brewers make Hefeweizens and wheat beers and are classified as German wheat beers? It is like the Abbott and Costello skit, whose on first? Well it is hazy with a med creamy head. A stale cardboard aroma. A bland Wonderbread taste. I guess that is what makes it an American wheat, cheap ingredients and very PC.

12 oz. bottle from sampler pack. Pours a slightly hazy golden color with a small disappearing white head. The aroma, what little there is, is wheat grass with a slight infusion of honey sweetness and citrus. The flavor is again subtle at best and includes wheat grass, cereal notes, and very mild honey sweetness and citrus qualities. Nothing about this is offensive, but there is not much there to consider at all. Light, crisp, refreshing; not much different than drinking a flavored water.

Got this one bottled in the multi-pack at Binny’s in St. Charles, Illinois. Cloudy, medium yellow pour with a thick, white head. Nice and balanced but lacking a great deal of the fruitiness I have come to expect from American wheat beers. Not bad.

Pours a hazy gold with a dense, frothy, white head. While it looks quite nice, this beer is a perfect example of the adage that "looks are only skin deep". The aroma is a dusty, straight wheat and little more. Light-bodied and thin with a sour and lightly dry finish. The flavor is sour wheat with an acidic, almost metallic, finish. This is definitely not the refreshing easy drinker that I’ve grown to expect from an American wheat. Put simply, it’s just not very good. Perhaps I sampled an "off" bottle, but finishing this beer was not a prospect that I entertained for even a second.

Re-Rate on 4/2/08: I recently discovered the remainder of the six pack I purchased back in September ’07. I thought, "what the hell", and cracked one. It’s still a pretty poor example of the style, but it wasn’t nearly as offensive as I remember it being. Don’t get me wrong. It’s still a pretty poor example of the style and I will never purchase it again, but in hindsight, I’ve had worse. It’s pretty odd that 6 months of aging would improve a standard wheat but it did. I’m giving it a modest bump, because upon further review it doesn’t deserve to remain at the bottom of my rated beers. [Original Rating: 1.3; 4/4/2/2/1]

12 oz bottle from the Craft Pack. No way is this really a Hefe. I was 8 beers in when I tried this, but I was still sober enough to realize that this tasted nothing like a hefe. I guess thats why its listed as a Wheat Ale.

This was a pretty decent hefe, but it did not have a fruity taste of some others that I like better. Still a good beer that you don’t have to think much about when drinking it.

Sipped from bottle. Aroma is faint, wheaty, malty, nothing much. Flavor is muddy, overall. There is certainly wheat and grain, but nothing jumps at you. At best, a cheaper “craft” offering for summer session drinking.